Snoozing My Way to Good Health

When I first started using Fitbit in January I was completely taken with it as an activity tracker. I remain addicted to its great graphics, its rewards program (I liked gold stars in grade school too.), its "very active minutes" tracking, its caloric counter.  I am a One user.  I was slightly turned off by the sleep wristband.  So I didn't use it for the first month.

Meh, eh?

But seeing that empty Sleep block in between the number of floors I had climbed and my 15,000 steps badge  on the computer screen made me  reconsider.  Good sleep is essential to good health.  I am all about health.  So, for the past month I have been religious about either wearing the One to bed or, at the very least, recording my sleep manually.  I can read my sleep efficiency each day if I remember to wear the One to bed. Better yet, each week Fitbit sends me a recap of my sleep data, with totals and averages.  

For the month of February I averaged 7.5 hours of sleep per night.  It takes me between 7 and 10 minutes to fall asleep at night, which puts me right on the borderline of being sleep deprived.  Did you know that falling asleep immediately on hitting the pillow is a sign of sleep deprivation? If it takes you 10  minutes to fall asleep, you're getting enough sleep.  Less than 10 minutes and you are sleep deprived.  

On average I wake up 10 times per night.  However, I had one night where I was awakened 20 times. That was a night when I was processing a family issue that has now been resolved. The next night I slept like a baby. Restlessness can be triggered  by my bed partner having a poor night's sleep, by drinking coffee too late in the day (Espresso with dinner?  Who, me?), by loud noises (I live in New York City.), consuming too much alcohol, or by the full moon.  The good news is that when I look at the sleep graph on the Fitbit log, they have set the data up for folks to awake 50 times during the course of one night! So 20 times per night once in a while is probably not an indication of a sleep disorder. . .  On average my sleep efficiency is at 92 percent.  Silver star?

I have had a few issues with the sleep mode.  Sometimes I go through the effort to put the One in the pouch  and the band on the wrist but forget to turn it on to sleep mode.  Or I get up in the morning and forget to turn it off from sleep mode.  User errors, both.  Once or twice I have found that the wristband has slipped off.  I do not use the Fitbit  alarm or any alarm. 

If you have chronic sleep issues, you might find this Traditional Chinese Medicine website intriguing.  http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/Qi-Cycle.html  Take note of the time when you wake up at night.  You probably know that already if it's a chronic problem.   Click on the appropriate time on the chart to see which of your organs, in the Traditional Chinese Medicine system, is out of balance.  Maybe a new approach--or just a new insight into your life--will help you get a better night's sleep.  That and laying off the booze, the coffee, the computer, and getting enough but not too much exercise.

I would like to see Fitbit develop an affordable device that monitored REM sleep and NREM sleep (transitional sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep).  It's in the latter phases of sleep--the NREM stages-- where the body repairs itself and where the immune system recovers.  Sleep is a critical part of our lives, so snooze it or lose it.    

It will be interesting to see how my sleep patterns are affected by the upcoming change with daylight savings time. . . Enjoy your shut eye.  And share your sleep experiences with me.